TASK 4. (0-8)
Read two texts connected with art. Do tasks 4.1.-4.8.
Text 1
PRIMARY SCHOOLS DAY AT A MUSEUM
The enormous building waited as though braced to defend itself, standing back resolutely
from its great courtyard under a frozen January sky, colourless, cloudless, leafless and
pigeonless. The courtyard was entirely filled with people. A restrained noise rose from them,
like the grinding of the sea at low tide. They made slight surges forward, then back, but
always gaining an inch. [1] Inside the building, the Deputy Director of Security (DDS)
reviewed the disposition of his forces. The duties that led to congratulation and overtime had
always in the past been strictly allocated by seniority, as some of the older ones were still,
for the hundredth time, pointing out, grumbling that they were not to the fore. “This is a time
when we may need force,” the DDS replied patiently. “Experience, too, of course,” he added
conciliatingly. The huge bronze clock in the atrium, at which he glanced, had the peculiarity
of waiting and then jumping forwards a whole minute; and this peculiarity made it impossible
not to say: three minutes to go, two minutes to go. [2] “Three minutes to go,” said the DDS.
“We are all quite clear, I take it. Slight accidents, fainting, trampling under foot -
the emergency First Aid posts are indicated in your orders for the day; complaints, show
sympathy; disorder, contain; increased disorder, communicate directly with my office; wild
disorder, the police, to be avoided if possible. Crush barriers to be kept in place at all entries
at all times. No lingering.”
“Sir William doesn’t approve of that,” said a resolutely doleful voice.
“I fail to account for your presence here, Jones. You have already been drafted, and your
place, as usual, is in Stores. The real danger point is the approach to the tomb,” the DDS
added in a louder voice; “That’s been agreed, both with you and higher up.” [3] The first
public day of the Museum’s winter exhibition of the Golden Child had begun.
It was the dreaded Primary Schools Day. To mark out the route to follow, the courtyard had
been partitioned by the darkly gleaming posters announcing the Exhibition. The queue
wound up and down like a giant serpent: five or six thousand children, mostly dressed in
navy blue cotton trousers and flimsy plastic jackets, which made them half unconscious with
cold; having long since eaten the sandwiches which were intended for several hours later,
more or less under the control of numbed teachers, insistent, single-minded, determined to
see and to have seen. Like pilgrims of a former day, they were earning their salvation by
reaching the end of a journey. At one point in the courtyard a faint steam or smoke, like that
of a camp-fire, rose above the cloud of breath from the swarming red-and-blue-nosed
children. It was the field kitchen of the Women’s Voluntary Service with tea boilers at
the simmer, strategically placed to help those who might otherwise collapse before they
reached the steps. [4] Here they all paused a moment, drank an inch of hot tea, sweetened
at too early a stage for any choice to be made, threw down their plastic cups on the frozen
ground and then advanced towards the entrance over what soon became a carpet of plastic.
Adapted from: Penelope Fitzgerald, The Golden Child, New York 1999.
MJAA-D0-100
For questions 4.1.-4.4., choose the answer that best matches the text and circle
the appropriate letter (A, B, C or D).
4.1. Look at the spaces marked 1-4 in the text and decide where the following sentence
fits best in the passage.
And at that very moment, the bronze hand jumped the last minute, both inside and on
the public face outside the building, and the wave of human beings, with the
movement of a natural disaster, lapped up the steps and entered the hall.
A. In the space marked [1].
B. In the space marked [2].
C. In the space marked [3].
D. In the space marked [4].
4.2. In the first paragraph, the author mentions
A. the rebellious behaviour of the crowd outside the museum.
B. the gratitude displayed by the DDS towards his employees.
C. the inadequacy of the security measures taken by the museum.
D. the discontent of some employees with the decision made by their superiors.
4.3. It can be concluded that the children queuing to enter the museum were
A. preoccupied with planning how to flee from the courtyard.
B. attempting to push their way ahead of their schoolmates.
C. inappropriately attired for the conditions outside.
D. reassured by their teachers’ presence.
4.4. From the last paragraph, we learn that
A. visitors were provided with a range of hot beverages.
B. the posters advertising the exhibition served a practical purpose.
C. the Women’s Voluntary Service was responsible for medical assistance.
D. in the courtyard there was an open fire where visitors could warm themselves.
TRANSFER YOUR ANSWERS TO THE ANSWER SHEET!
MJAA-D0-100
Text 2
PORTRAIT OF A LADY: STOLEN KLIMT MYSTERY SOLVED
In January 2020 two men confessed to stealing, and then returning, a painting by Gustav
Klimt, Portrait of a Lady. The picture was found concealed in a wall of the Ricci Oddi modern
art gallery, the same gallery in Piacenza from which it had gone missing in 1997. The two
men declared themselves the guilty parties in a letter to Ermanno Mariani, a journalist for
the local newspaper, Libertà. Mariani received the letter soon after gardeners had discovered
the stolen painting while they were clearing ivy on an exterior wall of the gallery. They
spotted a metal panel behind which there was a cavity with the painting inside.
The thieves claimed they had returned the painting “as a gift to the city” four years before it
was discovered. Mariani said, “They have been obscure about the details but have always
maintained that the painting was not in the cavity all of that time. I’m not a technical expert,
but it would have been damaged if it had been there for all those years.”
While the intricacies of the crime are unclear, the motives for confessing are more
transparent. The thieves made their first confession over 20 years after the theft, meaning
they would avoid prosecution, as the statute of limitations for the crime had expired. Mariani
said the theft bore similar traits to some of their past crimes, for example the robbery of
300 illuminated manuscripts from Passerini-Landi Library in Piacenza.
Portrait of a Lady went missing during preparations for an exhibition in Piacenza aimed at
showing it off after the revelation that it was the only “double” Klimt known to the art world.
The discovery was made by an art student, Claudia Maga, who realized that it had been
painted over another Klimt piece previously believed to be lost, Portrait of a Young Woman.
The next surprise was the story behind the original painting. Klimt had fallen madly in love
with a young girl from Vienna who had quickly become his muse. When she suddenly
passed away, to forget the pain of his loss, he painted over her portrait.
Adapted from: www.theguardian.com; www.bbc.com
MJAA-D0-100
Based on the text, complete sentences 4.5.-4.8.
4.5. In the letter to Ermanno Mariani, the thieves
the painting.
4.6. Based on the painting’s condition, Mariani concluded that it
for the entire period it had
been missing.
4.7. From the third paragraph, we learn that there was no chance of
4.8. Klimt decided to cover one painting with another after
unexpectedly.
MJAA-D0-100
dopuszczalne są błędy językowe i/lub ortograficzne, o ile nie zakłócają komunikacji,
a odpowiedź wskazuje, że zdający zrozumiał tekst.